Integrating Particle Physics Research into Curriculum at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution

This presentation highlights a model for embedding particle physics research into the undergraduate experience at a liberal arts college. Working with data from the ATLAS experiment at CERN, students at Washington College engage in analysis projects that are integrated into a course on scientific modeling. This curricular innovation is complemented by mentored research experiences, with students contributing to trigger studies, kinematics modeling, and machine learning–based event classification. Many have presented their work at national conferences and progressed to graduate study in physics and related fields. This model demonstrates how undergraduates, even at primarily teaching-focused institutions, can contribute meaningfully to large-scale international collaborations while building skills relevant for both academic and professional STEM pathways.